Chemosensory-Based Pest Management of Insects and Other Protostomes in Crop Protection

Dear Colleagues,

Several protostomes have agricultural implications based on their ecological interactions with crops. Some are beneficial, while others are deleterious or vectors of plant diseases. Independent of their kind of impact on crops, chemical sensing is at the base of these animals’ ecological interactions with plants. The concept of chemical sensing by organisms describes the detection of different types of compounds belonging to the external environment. Among insects, for example, it is still common to distinguish taste from olfaction; however, in reality, it is more appropriate to break this distinction by considering various lines of evidence for adaptation of the receptors involved in these "two senses" from more primitive chemical sensors.

Our work challenges the binomial distinction of “taste” and “olfaction” by proposing a broader "vision" of the chemosensory modalities of protostomes with a notable agricultural impact. We invite researchers in “viewing such invertebrates, big and small, as complex chemosensory entities” to investigate in sensu latu the various possible functional mechanisms involving subunits of chemoreceptors, independently from their classification as odorant or taste receptors, and activation of these subunits for the interaction of these animals with cultivated plants.

In this Special Issue, we welcome studies exploring ecological interactions with cultivated plants of any sort of organism from the Superphylum Protostomia. We claim to address this collection to deepen knowledge on the molecular aspects at the base of the chemosensory receptors both from plant pests and beneficial organisms at different levels, including evolutionary, functional, electrophysiological, and any aspect of receptor/ligand interactions. We want to improve our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms behind the existence of primitive chemical sensors, such as insects’ Orco, the IR25a subfamily of IRs, or GR-like proteins. We place particular emphasis on investigations into primitive chemosensory receptor subunits, like insects’ primitive ORs. We also encourage studies on chemosensory receptors that have gotten little attention as chemosensory receptors per se, such as TRP channels and pickpocket receptors, as well as chemoreceptors working metabotropically. For insects, we are particularly interested in functional evidence of chimeric receptors or neurophysiological cross-talk, as well as studies exploring the role of odorant/tastant binding proteins or any accessory soluble or transmembrane protein actor involved in chemical sensing. We consider contributions exploring ecological interactions with cultivated plants when they are based on functional evidence of specific chemical sensors or examine management strategies for various invertebrates.

For authors interested in contributing, for this Special Issue we are accepting any type/format of written submission, including review articles, as long as such contributions respect the standards being maintained by MDPI and the journal Agriculture.

Dr. Alberto Maria Cattaneo
Dr. William B. Walker
Guest Editors

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• plant pests
• crop beneficial organisms
• invertebrate chemosensory receptors
• gustatory receptors
• transient receptor potential channels
• primitive chemosensory receptors
• ionotropic receptors
• IR25a
• Orco
• primitive ORs
• odorant receptors
• chemosensory proteins
• odorant binding proteins
• sensory neuron membrane proteins
• metabotropic interactions
• ionotropic mechanisms
• chemosensory transduction